Posts

Above: The Kakuma Interdenominational School of Mission (KISOM)Above: KISOM

It was a joy to participate in the first training session held in the brand new KISOM building yesterday.

Our refugee brothers and sisters launched KISOM back in 1997. In 2012 they began praying in earnest for a building of their own as they were last meeting in a condemned and abandoned primary school in the camp.

IAFR prayed with them. Once we had a draft of a proposed architectural design and budget, we brought it to our financial partners. They responded generously. We then contracted our NGO partner, National Council of Churches Kenya (NCCK) to do the actual building.

KISOM has already graduated well over 1000 students trained to be pastors, evangelists and missionaries. Many are church leaders in the refugee camp and surrounding host community. Others have since relocated to their homelands or a third country (refugee resettlement). Most are pastoring somewhere today.

Sadly, I fell suddenly ill shortly after taking this photos and making a Facebook Live video. I spent the next 24 hours resting and recovering. I’m thankful to say that I am well again and able to continue the visit here as planned.

Please take a moment to look at each face. I think you will agree that these are not people of whom anyone should be afraid. Yet they are stuck in a refugee camp with no way out because of rampant misrepresentation and fear mongering. Any one of us would be blessed to have such people as a neighbor and friend.

Refugees are people in need of protection and place. They are not a threat to anyone. Pass it on.

Above: Today’s facilitator and translator for another day of theological training. The “Kakuma 5” shirt courtesy of our friends at Northwood Community Church (MN). Any guesses what Kakuma 5 means?Above: Prof. Kalantzis presents Pastor Martin a certificate of having completed a trauma care training course on behalf of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute (Wheaton, IL).

Above: Prof Kalantzis teaching this morningAbove: Nicholas is a gifted translator without whom the training couldn’t happen. He is also the director of the KISOM.Above: A Christian leader from the host community engaging with the trainingAbove: This group of Christian leaders is crossing all sorts of barriers as they learn together. The pastor on the right is from the host community (Turkana) and the pastor on the left is from Ethiopia.

Professor George Kalantzis started a 3 day theological training intensive of church leaders from the refugee and surrounding host communities this morning. He’s continuing from where he left off last October.

These remarkable women and men play an instrumental role in helping people cope and even thrive in a context of protracted displacement.

A supportive community and life-giving faith/worldview are essential to strengthening human resilience and keeping hope alive.

We’ve been working on a massive project for several years that aims to provide drinkable water to a camp of over 2000 Internally Displaced People (IDP). We reached a major milestone last week. We struck water!

The drill first found some water at around 40 meters. It looked promising, but our NGO partner in Kenya encouraged them to keep drilling. At 80 meters they found nothing more and recommended to stop drilling. Our partner encouraged them to keep drilling.

Then it happened. At 110 meters they hit a water source that appears to be very promising.

The next step is to test the water quality. If it checks out as expected, this is the well for which we’ve been praying together all these years!

2. Water!

There are currently 15 wells serving the refugees and locals. Only 2 are still working. And one of them is no longer producing much. One well is trying to serve 200,000 refugees plus the local people. If it fails, it will be a humanitarian disaster on top of a humanitarian disaster.

We’re only getting water in the NGO compound for 2 hours at night. Every measure is being taken to conserve water.

This is a semi desert and people won’t last long if water fails. The rains aren’t expected for another 4-6 weeks. We can feel the tension in the air.

Would you pray with us that God will provide for the women, children and men here?

How strange it is to strike water at a time of an impending water emergency.

Posts navigation

About IAFR in Kakuma

IAFR is helping people survive and recover from forced displacement in the Kakuma region of remote northwestern Kenya.

Over 200,000 people have found temporary refuge in Kakuma.

We partner with United Refugee and Host Churches (URHC) – a refugee initiated association of churches from within the camp and surrounding host community. We also partner closely with National Council of Churches Kenya (NCCK), an exceptional humanitarian agency.